On filters and feelings

“Seri­ous hob­by­ists” use fil­ters only to cor­rect a problem—say, cor­rect the expo­sure. “More casu­al pho­tog­ra­phers” are more like­ly to manip­u­late their images with fil­ters or adjust­ments that make them appear more “arti­fi­cial,” accord­ing to the study.

I used to be a bit of a fil­ter snob, but now I tend to think that, cer­tain­ly on Insta­gram, using a fil­ter is less about try­ing to cap­ture a moment than it is about cap­tur­ing the way that moment felt. It’s like, when you take a pic­ture on a hot day but that hot­ness doesn’t come across in the pho­to, Sier­ra or Valen­cia are tools to help com­mu­ni­cate that feel­ing to every­one else who views it.